Can I make money while on SMP?

[sarah13xx]

I have a full time job which I’m on mat leave from, into my fourth month of leave and I’ve now moved onto statutory maternity pay. I’m in Scotland if that make a difference! I have started selling crafty items on ebay/etsy, only on a small scale at the moment but it’s picking up. I have read all sorts of different accounts of whether I’m allowed to do this while on SMP and whether or not I should pay tax on that. Something I read online said I didn’t pay tax on it while it was a hobby but if I made over £1000 from it I should 🤔 If I’m getting SMP from one job am I allowed to start another or can I just make no money until I’m back at work? Hoping this crafting career will take off and I won’t need to go back 🤦🏼‍♀️

As I understand it, you are allowed to earn money from self employment while also receiving SMP. But like any earnings yes you need to keep records and pay tax on it. I think you get a grace period (maybe a year?) to register as self-employed after starting a business, but yes you will need to keep track of allowable expenses/expenditure and income, keep receipts/records, file a tax return.

Your personal (tax free) allowance (£12500) applies across all your income combined, so if you earned say £5.5k from SMP in the tax year, you'd be able to earn another £7k from self employment before you started paying tax on it. You still need to declare it though. This would be a bit more complicated if you've also got normal taxed wages in the same tax year as you'd have used up more of your personal allowance already.

@Babamamananarama thank you, it’s all so confusing because I’ve never done it before. I think I’ll set it up as a hobby for now and if I start selling many I’ll go down the route of registering as self employed etc

As @Babamamananarama says. You can do self employed work while on maternity leave

[quote sarah13xx]@Babamamananarama thank you, it’s all so confusing because I’ve never done it before. I think I’ll set it up as a hobby for now and if I start selling many I’ll go down the route of registering as self employed etc[/quote]
If you are selling, even in small amounts, you still need to register.